Why does expressive writing work so well? Because it forces us to confront painful feelings that we usually downplay. We live in a world that preaches the gospel of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and that lionizes the strong and invulnerable. Because of this cultural messaging and all the pressure it places on us, we learn to ignore our needs. We may even hate ourselves for having feelings of weakness or for harboring difficult emotions. Expressive writing seems to work because it gives us the opportunity to locate and listen to the vulnerable side of ourselves that we spend all day
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